Summer Parenting Plans
Believe it or not, summer is fast approaching. Before you realise it, your kids will be out of school for a few weeks for summer holiday, and your normal routine will be out of commission. A change in the children’s schedule will likely cause changes to your normal parenting schedule. While every family needs to plan for summer holiday, it’s especially important for divorced parents to plan ahead for the summer routine.
In formulating summer parenting plans, it is possible that conflict will arise between you and your co-parent. You may already have plans in mind for when you'd like to take your kids on a holiday trip, while your co-parent might also have similar plans in mind. Before these issues have any affect on your children’s actual summertime plans, work out a summer parenting plan with your co-parent well ahead of time.
Communicate with your co-parent about your individual holiday plans. If you open the lines of communication early enough, you may be able to avoid having an argument over conflicting holiday dates. Don’t reserve anything until you’ve had a conversation with your co-parent about it. Your dates may already be pretty concrete, but still let your co-parent know before finalising any plans. It is worse to change plans after you have already made reservations than it is to do so beforehand. Plus, telling your co-parent early on about your holiday plans will hopefully allow you to secure those days without conflict and also give your co-parent a better idea as to when they could take their holiday.
Check your work and social schedules for any plans that could affect your summer parenting plan. Whether it is a family picnic that you want to bring the kids to or an out of town work conference, get these dates marked on the schedule now. This will allow you to work out any trades or swaps in parenting time well ahead of time. Also, take a look at each of your children’s schedules for things like sports games, birthday parties, or other pre-planned events which you know they’ll want to attend. You may even want to attend some of these events with your kids, so discuss these dates with your co-parent. Decide which events you may each attend individually and which you may want to attend together.
Plan for summer child care now, if necessary. With your kids out of school, you might need to consider making arrangements for your kids to attend a day care programme so that your kids are supervised while also having something fun to do each day. You may want to consider hiring a nanny to spend the day with your children, or find a day programme at a day care facility that your children could attend. Speak to the parents of your children's school mates to see what their plans are. Perhaps there is a summer day care programme that your children and their friends could all attend together.
Finally, talk to your children. See if they have anything in mind that they’d like to do this summer, then try and work in those ideas into the summer schedule. Summer holiday is a special time for any child, so work as hard as you can towards giving your children the best summer holiday to date!